Third Point, Greenlight Start 2014 With Down Month

February 1, 2014 at 7:31 pmby

While many value investors accept down months, even the most hardcore value investors do not enjoy losing money. Dan Loeb’s Third Point and David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital had an impressive 2013 compared to many other hedge funds. However, both hedge funds were down in the month of January, according to an investment update from Third Point reviewed by ValueWalk, and information from Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE)’s website.

David Einhorn’s Greenlight RE was down 1.5% in January, while Dan Loeb’s Third Point dropped 1.8% during the same period. In contrast, the S&P 500 (.INX) fell by nearly 3% during the month. Both long short value/event driven hedge funds had a good month on an absolute basis.

Third Point has not released information about its holdings; according to the fund’s Q4 letter to investors, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) is now the largest holding. The chemical company returned around 3% during January. However, another large holding, SoftBank Corp (OTCMKTS:SFTBF) (TYO:9984) was down over 15%. Additionally, Loeb’s other large Japanese holding,Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758), dropped by over 10%.

David Einhorn’s positioning according to GRLE’s website:

As of 31-January-2014, the largest disclosed long positions in the investment portfolio are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), gold, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS) and Vodafone; the investment portfolio is approximately 110% long and 65% short. All exposure information is calculated on a delta adjusted basis and excludes credit default swaps, interest rate swaps, sovereign debt, currencies, commodities, and derivatives on any of these instruments.

While Gold was up over 3% in the month, Marvell gained 4%, and Micron gained close to 6%, Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) (LON:VOD) dropped approximately 6%, OIS 8% and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) nearly 11%.

All of the top five Greenlight holdings have been disclosed publicly. In the hedge fund’s Q4 2013 letter to investors, new positions in BP plc (NYSE:BP) (LON:BP), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) were revealed. BP was down 4% in January, while Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) was up 2%.

Spokespeople at Greenlight and Third Point, did not immediately return requests for comment.